This post was originally published here
Scotland Introducing
Scotland Introducing is a new initiative designed to introduce artists to new audiences across England. This follows on from the year-long Scotland Unwrapped at Kings Place, the focus at Cambridge Folk Festival and the Visit delivered for the English market which were all delivered last year.
Showcase Scotland Expo understands England is an important market for artists’ career development and aims to introduce artists to new audiences through a number of initiatives.
English venues who attended The Visit 2024 have teamed up to create a concert series taking place in March, June, September and November 2026. These will be marketed under the banner of Scotland Introducing.
The project will be launched on 26th November 2025 at the Scottish Government’s headquarters in London, followed by a launch concert that evening at St Pancras Old Church as part of London Roots Festival.
Participating artists for the November launch, March and June will be selected by the venues from the 21 artists who showcased at The Visit 2024 and those artists are also on the shortlist for the September and November runs, BUT we are also opening up September and November 2026 to new artists.
The dates are:
September 2026
3rd Masham Town Hall
4th Settle Victoria Hall
5th The Junction, Cambridge
6th The Live Room, Saltaire
November 2026
18th Lakeside Arts, Nottingham
19th The Junction, Cambridge
20th Kings Place, London
21st Folk in the Barn, Canterbury
Artists will be paid fees of £200 per musician per show, plus accommodation and a contribution towards travel costs.
English Folk Expo
We have also secured a partnership with English Folk Expo in Manchester for March 2026 and will be hosting a special Scottish showcase at the conference, followed by a concert which will be open to the public as part of Manchester Folk Festival.
Around 200 delegates music festivals and venues largely from England attend, but bookers such as the Port Fairy Folk Festival in Australia and the Tønder Folk Festival in Denmark also regularly attend.
Three artists/groups will be selected to showcase on the afternoon of Friday 20th march 2026 followed by a performance at Manchester folk festival on Saturday 21st March 2026.
Showcasing artists will also receive free passes to the associated artist-focussed conference, trade fair and the public festival events programme.
Hotels and travel will be covered and artists will also be paid for performances.
You can apply for both Scotland Introducing and English Folk Expo using this form. Please indicate which opportunities you want to be considered for in the relevant section.
The deadline for applications to both Scotland Introducing and English Folk Expo is 00.00 on Monday 30th June 2025
Artist selection process
For all of our opportunities, artists are selected by a panel of industry specialists and the participating venues/events. For transparency and the avoidance of conflict of interest, none of the Showcase Scotland Expo team are involved in any selection process.
Criteria
- Artists’ work must be rooted in the acoustic, folk, Gaelic, roots, Scots language, traditional, or world music genres.
- Artists will have a demonstrable track record of performance in the UK including e.g. live reviews, festival and venue performances.
- Artists must be able to demonstrate the ability to maximise the promotional opportunities that Showcase Scotland Expo affords e.g. strong web and social networking presence, credible mailing lists, promotional product for the event, EPK/Live footage available.
- Artists must be able to articulate their rationale for applying and relevance to their career.
- Artists must be willing to undertake press interviews etc as required for the Showcase Scotland Expo showcase.
- Artists must be able to provide access to three tracks via streaming links.
- Evidence of existing English market interest or support is desirable.
- Artists must be available to perform on the dates relevant to the opportunities for which they are applying.
- Artists must agree to provide evaluation info as required to the Showcase Scotland Expo Steering Group. This will include financial information regarding onward bookings secured from the showcase.
- Artists must be resident in Scotland.
- Applications must be received by 00.00 on 30th June 2025.
Tips for completing the form
There is a save button at the very bottom of the form – we suggest using it regularly! Clicking on it saves your progress and also provides a URL to resume the form later. You are given the option to email this URL to yourself. If you lose the resume link, email info@showcasescotlandexpo.com and we will retrieve it for you.
Note that if you haven’t clicked ‘save’ at any point and you lose your incomplete application there will be nothing for us to retrieve!
It could also be useful to type your answers into a Word doc first and paste them into the form when ready. And save that Word doc – it is likely that some answers will also be applicable to future Showcase Scotland Expo applications.
If you have any queries prior to submitting your application please email info@showcasescotlandexpo.com
Fill in the form